Fun and Games

E., R. and I played Horse-opoly tonight. It was great fun with lots of laughter and good-natured competition.





Both E. and I were surprised that R. could do all the math that is required so quickly. She's proving to be a real math whiz - or at least good at adding up money!

Mud season has arrived

We are not quite at the "suck your boots off" stage of mud season but it's getting close! It was a rainy afternoon which made it dark at the barn by 4:15. Consequently, I decided to not take Curly's boot off - with my luck I wouldn't be able to get it back on so tightly and it would then come off in the next day. So I left good-enough alone and we mucked stalls instead.

I think Curly must be feeling a bit better today because he hadn't pooped in his stall - usually a sign that he's comfortable enough to walk outside to do his business. I've been using the "Where did Curly poop?" barometer to assess his pain level a lot lately. Go ahead, laugh, but when the patient can't actually tell you where it hurts and how much, you use anything you can to figure this stuff out! I noticed early on that he only seemed to poop in his stall right after (or right before we discovered) an injury.

Q, on the other hand, regularly poops in his stall, which is why we mucked out today. I hate to see the poor guy surrounded by all the yuck. You'd think they'd think it was yucky too and change their habits....

E. and I want to train Curly to poop into a wheelbarrow. :-) I'm not betting that we'll ever accomplish that, though!

Lost boots

E. and I went out to the barn at 3:00 yesterday to trailer Q to the fairgrounds for a 4:00 lesson and discovered that Curly had lost his boot. I'm sure he was quite happy to be in a more natural state but the extra dirt and muck couldn't have been good for his back hoof.

After the riding lesson we came back and attempted to clean it out....in the dark. The sun sets early these days and the night sky was pretty much in place by 5:00. E. begged a bucket of warm water from the barn manager's house - the well water from the outside spigot is freezing! - and we got to work. I'm not sure how clean we got the wound, but the boot was back on by 6:00 and Curly was grumpy again.

We plan to go out again this afternoon to re-clean the hoof and muck stalls....

Oh no......

Just a quick entry this morning before we start our day in earnest....

The farrier was out yesterday to trim both horses hooves. Q is doing fine of course. Curly, on the other hand, is another story. Not only is the one hoof still looking pretty bad from the abscess, but now his other hind hoof is showing some sensitivity. He was favoring it all day, which made trimming really difficult. The farrier could feel some warmth in the hoof but we were unable to determine what is causing the problem. So it's a "wait and see" situation.

The farrier also suggested a home-made poultice of sugar and iodine solution for the abscess to help draw out any remaining infection. We'll try that in a few days. With the shorter days we never make it out to the barn after work/school before the sun sets. Mucking a stall in the dark is quite a challenge!

The medicine boot we got for Curly is working - sort-of. It is still a bit big on his foot and he easily turns it. It's kinda funny to see him walking with it turned sideways; it looks like his whole hoof is turned in. But it is keeping his hoof cleaner, and that is the goal right now.

Relaxing afternoon...

We just got back from a wonderful afternoon out at the barn. After taking care of some chores (mucking out stalls, changing Curly's bandage, etc.) the girls and I took turns riding Q. I don't think he was too happy about the constant change in riders, but we had a good time! I got him to canter - my first time riding a horse at that speed. I have to admit that I felt just a tiny bit out of control. :-)

Curly was happy to wander all over the barnyard while we had fun. He's still not ridable, and the bandage usually smells pretty bad when we change it but I do think he is healing....just very slowly. (The smell is probably a combination of yucky wound stuff, and manure and dirt getting trapped in there. We clean it out as best we can every other day. This probably should be done daily, but I can't quite manage to find the time it takes to get out there that often.)

I looked at a house with 2.46 acres and a small barn here in town last weekend. And I fell in love with the place. The house was nothing special, but the land was great and the location even better. But I don't think we'll be able to get M. to even look at the property, let alone consider moving there. I really would like to live right next to our horse buddies....

Hauling Hay

The whole family worked together today, hauling and stacking 26 bales of hay. I was in a bit of a panic earlier in the week because I learned that our regular supplier was already out of hay for the year. Luckily, one of my co-workers mentioned that her husband grows and sells hay for horses...and he still has quite a bit put under cover at their place. So off we went to their farm this morning to load up as much as we could. M. was great about pitching in - we couldn't have managed without him, really. Those bales are HEAVY! And the girls had fun climbing the stack once we finished:

We will still need to bring in another 4 tons to get us through the winter and early spring. Hope M's muscles hold up!

Curly was so happy today - he got to spend some time out in the pasture for the first time in a week or so:

Halloween Costumes

We had a Halloween party with the 4-H club last night. Club members were encouraged to dress both themselves and their horses up for the fun - not that these 10 to 14 year olds needed much encouragement!

E. and R. chose a theme for their costumes. R. was a princess astride her magical unicorn (a.k.a. Q) and E. was the knight in shining armor with her magnificent steed (a.k.a. Curly). I never got a good shot of the knight, but here's one of R. and Q:



We all proceeded to play musical chairs with the horses (parents provided the music) and then to gorge ourselves on treats. A very fun evening overall!